A Hole in the Middle

A progress report on the drying products. All look satisfactory at this point, although we haven’t tasted any of them yet. As the tuscan salami shrinks, it’s pulling away from the fibrous casing:

It’s difficult to see the peperone’s actual size in this picture, but it’s the longest of the bunch at about 1.5 feet:

It has some nice color, too. The chorizo bears war wounds from sampling, and you can see how we “core” the sausages to get a more representative sample:

Lastly, the pancetta, with the lean parts showing more translucent as they dry:

I’m wondering how “dry” the inside of the pancetta will get through this process. It’s only supposed to cure for a couple of weeks, so I’m not sure how that will allow the meat in the center to dry out. I know I said I’d present data this week, but it’ll be next week that we look at the drying curves for the chorizo, etc. They appear to make sense based on diameter, but the rate of drying for the peperone is catching up to the chorizo, which I wouldn’t have predicted.